Doesn’t warm tomato soup and breadsticks or crackers sound good for lunch on a cold winter day? What if you are on a gluten free diet? Today while I was working on an upcoming presentation on the stool testing and the genetics of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity for the Denver chapter of the Celiac Sprue Association, my wife made gluten free tomato soup. We also had bread sticks and crackers that are gluten free. The bread sticks I mentioned in a previous blog.

The soup is an organic soup made by Pacific Natural Foods. It comes in a paper carton ready to be warmed up in the microwave or on the stove. It is gluten free and low in sodium and fat content. However, it does contain milk. Combined with the gluten free bread sticks and crackers and with a few sprinkles of feta cheese on top it tastes great and really hit the spot. My kids loved it too. The published ingredients are organic reduced fat milk, filtered water, organic tomato paste, organic cane sweetener, sodium citrate, sea salt, organic rice flour, organic cheese flavor, organic garlic powder, organic onion powder, and organic white pepper. It is certified organic by ”Oregon Tilth” and carries the label “GLUTEN FREE” though there is no such standard in the U.S. yet.

The soup has 100 calories per 1 cup serving with only 20 calories from fat. It has 1.5 grams of saturated fat and no trans fat. It contains no high fructose corn syrup sweetener. Instead cane sugar is used.

The company is a family owned natural foods company founded in 1987. They make a variety of ready to heat and serve soups and broths. Be careful though because we have found the gluten free soups made by this company are frequently stocked on the self next to soups that are not gluten free but have very similar appearing boxes.

The Glutino brand bread sticks I have previously mentioned. The crackers, Glutano brand Crisp Bread are produced in England. I will comment more on them in another posting.

Thursday February 7, 2008 I will be speaking at the Denver Celiac Sprue Association Support Group on the genetics of Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. Tuesday February 12, 2008 I will be speaking to the Colorado Springs chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America on diet and probiotics. This past Thursday I spoke at a Spirit of Women series in Colorado Springs sponsored by Memorial Health Systems. It was the largest turn out they have ever had and tickets sold out within three days. Many people came up after the program to ask questions. It is obvious that there is a great need for more information about the role of gluten and leaky gut in celiac disease, IBS, colitis, autism, fibromyalgia and other health problems.

I am currently working on a newly designed newsletter, writing my chapters for a joint book project with Dr.’s Rodney Ford and Ron Hoggan (author of "Dangerous Grains", coeditor of "ScottFree" newsletter), an article for publication on mastocytic enterocolitis and hopefully the re-launch of my website, www.thefooddoc.com that currently redirects to my blog The Food Doc Journal

Hopefully, I will also be able to start enrolling patients in a clinical trial of AT 1001 in cooperation with Alba Therapeutics. This past year I diagnosed seventy new Celiac disease patients and over three hundred non-celiac gluten sensitive individuals. AT 1001 is an experimental agent that decreases leaky gut. AT 1001 is being evaluated for the treatment of Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease and prevention of Type I Diabetes. I was approved as a local investigator but enrollment of patients was delayed by some administrative challenges with the local clinical research company handling the study.

For those interested I do have copies of Ron Hoggan’s DVD “Smarten Up!” available for purchase at a discounted price of $9.95 plus shipping.

Needless to say trying to keep up reading article, writing, posting on my blogs, speaking, conducting clinical research and having a busy office practice while being a parent to kids from ages 4 to 22 is a challenge but I am encouraged by those who have let me know what I am doing is making difference. So, I hope that I may help you achieve a “healthy gut, healthy life”.

I have been entirely frusterated with pedi-GI's not listening to me. My son has EE, his dad has celiac. You are the first person out there to say there is a connection. Thank you so much for your work, it has been helpful for us having to make some very hard decisions. Always looking for more info. -Amber